The Black Cat

Mr. and Mrs. Alison, car 96,

compartment f, orient express, Budapest.

Darling.

Peter.

Aren't you hungry?

No, darling.

Are you?

No, of course not.

Are you sure?

= I'm starved.

So am I.

= t didn't eat a bite at luncheon.

Well, neither did I.

Whoever eats anything at a wedding luncheon?

They make the food out of papier mache.

My salad had been used four or five times this week.

Shall we dine in, Mrs. Alison?

You mean here in the compartment?

Yes.

Elegant.

Excuse me, sir, lady.

A terrible mistake has occurred.

We have sold space in your compartment to a gentlemen.

It is terrible.

= well?

You are going only to visegrad

which arrives at two o'clock.

Do please forgive this intrusion.

It is not necessary to make it so important.

You need not disturb these people.

I can make myself quite comfortable in the passageway.

Oh, we're only going as far as visegrad.

You're entirely welcome to share this compartment

if you wish.

You're very kind.

Thank you.

Sorry.

That's all right.

Thank you.

Wait.

Sorry I frightened you, darling.

It is after all, better to be frightened

than to be crushed.

Well, I'm Peter Alison.

This is Mrs. Alison.

It is very great pleasure.

I'm Dr. vitus werdegast.

So, you are going to visegrad?

Yes, and to grumbach by bus.

Ah, grumbach is very beautiful.

I too, am going very near there.

For the sport?

Perhaps.

I go to visit an old friend.

May I?

Certainly.

I beg your indulgence, my friend.

18 years ago, I left a girl

so like your lovely wife to go to war.

Kaiser and country, you know.

She was my wife.

Have you ever heard of kurgaal?

It is a prison below.

Many men have gone there.

Few have returned.

T have returned.

After 15 years,

t have returned.

Go ahead, my servant is coming.

= it is too bad about the rain.

It's very unusual.

This road was built by the Austrian army.

All of this country was one of the greatest

battlefields of the war.

Tens of thousands of men died here.

The ravine down there was piled 12 deep

with dead and wounded men.

The little river below was swollen,

a red, raging torrent of blood.

That high hill yonder where engineer poelzig now lives

was the site of fort marmaris.

Marmaris, the greatest graveyard in the world.

= driver is dead.

Engineer poelzig?

Herr poelzig has retired.

Engineer poelzig will be expecting me.

I'm Dr. werdegast.

We've had a bad accident.

Awaken herr poelzig at once and take us somewhere

where I can dress the lady's injury.

A man was killed.

Telephone the gendarme in visegrad and inform them.

Dr. werdegast has arrived.

There is no need to worry.

I'm sure after a good night's sleep,

she will be quite all right.

It has been a long time, hjalmar.

The years have been kind to you.

An accident on the road below.

We are all very fortunate to be alive.

Mr. and Mrs. Alison are going to grumbach.

Mrs. Alison is slightly injured.

I took the Liberty of bringing them here.

= of course.

She will sleep now.

You sold marmaris to the Russians.

Scattered away in the night and left us to die.

Is it to be wondered at that you should choose

this place to build your house?

A masterpiece of construction

built upon the ruins of the masterpiece of destruction,

the masterpiece of murder.

The murdererer of 10,000 men

returns to the place of his crime.

Those who died were fortunate.

I was taken prisoner to kurgaal.

Kurgaal, where the soul is killed,

slowly.

15 years I rotted in the darkness.

Wait.

Not to kill you.

To kill your soul, slow.

Where's my wife, Karen, and my daughter?

Karen?

Well, what do you mean?

I mean you told Karen I had been killed.

I found out that much in Budapest.

I mean, you always wanted her.

In the days but before the war,

always, from the first time you saw her.

I mean that after you saved your own hide

and left us all to die in marmaris,

you went to Karen, induced her to go to America with you.

I trace the two of you there

and to Spain and to south America and finally here.

Where is she?

Vitus, you are mad.

= where is she?

Sorry if I'm intruding.

= not at all.

Do come in.

We were just going to have something to drink.

Now, perhaps you'll join us.

And what would you like?

Oh, whiskey.

Whiskey.

This is a very interesting house you have, herr poelzig.

Has an atmosphere, kind of uh...

= it is indeed hard to describe.

As hard to describe as life or,

or death.

It may well be an atmosphere of death.

This place was built on the ruins

of that same fort marmaris that our unfortunate friend,

the driver, described so vividly.

Herr poelzig commanded marmaris

during the last years of the war.

He's perhaps sentimental about this spot.

And as for the house being interesting,

architectural,

it could not be otherwise.

Engineer poelzig is one of Austria's greatest architects.

Dr. werdegast is one of Hungary's greatest psychiatrists.

Allow me to introduce myself more fully.

I'm Peter Alison, one of America's greatest writers

of unimportant books.

Oh, you're an author, a novelist?

What kind of things do you do?

Mysteries.

To you, my friend.

To your charming wife.

And to love.

You all right, Joan?

Thought you were asleep.

You are frightened, doctor?

You are our host.

At your service, madame.

You must be indulgent of Dr. werdegast's weakness.

He is the unfortunate victim

of one of the commoner phobias, but in an extreme form.

He has an intense and all-consuming horror of cats.

Come darling, you must go back to bed.

You're not strong enough.

He is quite right.

You had a severe shock.

You must sleep.

Goodnight, gentlemen.

Joan.

I leave my presumption, but I must emphasize

the extreme importance of Mrs. Alison having complete quiet.

Sleep.

I gave her a very powerful narcotic

and I'm sure it will be effective soon.

Her condition is not sufficiently serious

to be cause for alarm but, it is decidedly delicate.

Rest is the important thing.

What curious changes it made in her?

You must have noticed it.

It is perhaps the narcotic.

Hyoscine affects certain people very oddly.